Greetings Community Members,
I hope you have been enjoying summer and are getting ready for school to start in a couple of weeks. I know many of my Educator friends are already gearing up and getting their classrooms ready for the return of students. I hope you all have the best year, and I cannot wait for fall sports to begin. We have a lot going on at GGHI, so let’s get to it.
What We Have Been Up To:
Recompete:
We have restarted our Recompete Pilot Study that is funded by the Federal EDA, and a $500,000 grant. This plan was placed on hold in early 2025 with the pause placed on all grants funded by the Federal Government. This funding has been restored, and we are ready to get started again with a few changes.
We have selected Dr. Mike McNickle as our Recompete Planning Coordinator, along with his team at Grays Harbor County Public Health, as well as the support from County Administrator Sam Kim, and Commissioner Georgia Miller. We will be continuing to partner with Pacific County EDC, Pacific County, Grays Harbor College, and Pacific Mountain Workforce Development to study why Grays Harbor and Pacific Counties have one of the highest Prime Aged Employment Gap’s (PAEG) in the Northwest, and 15% above the national average. PAEG is people aged 25-54 that are not working for whatever reason.
Dr. McNickle’s team will be reaching out to employers, cities, and residents seeking employment, just to name a few of the folks we want to get information from about why they are not working. We have created a survey that we are requesting people that are unemployed to fill out, so we can better understand what the barriers are that are keeping them from finding work. A link to the survey in English and in Spanish can be found here. Find more information here.
Hire Me First Program:
We are getting ready to kick off our 2025-26 Hire Me First Campaign with Aberdeen High School, and Grays Harbor College. This will be the first year of this program that we eventually want to expand out to the other School Districts in Grays Harbor. This program places interested students into a program ran by Aberdeen High School where they are given a set of parameters and basic skills that they must achieve to be given a card that says they have achieved the skills necessary to be considered for employment by participating businesses.
Each participating student has their qualifications reviewed by Grays Harbor College to certify they have achieved the necessary steps to be considered for the program. The Hire Me First Programs only guarantees the participating student an interview to be considered for employment and does not guarantee employment.
We are currently seeking employers that are interested in participating in the program, and if your business would like more information on this program, please contact Loretta Thomas our Director of Business Services at 360-532-7888, or you can find more information at here.
Housing Statistics:
In this month’s message, I am including some information on real estate in Grays Harbor County. Each month I will include some different economic indicators for your review, and please let us know if there are other statistics of interest you would like to see.
Key Market Indicators (June 2025):
- Median home value: $285,000 (up 7.2% year-over-year)
- Average days on market: 28 days
- Inventory levels: 2.1 months of supply
- Price per square foot: $168 (county average)
- Closed sales volume: Up 12% compared to same period 2024.
Upcoming Events:
The exciting 2025 Showcase Grays Harbor will be held on Friday Sep 19, 2025. This year’s tour will be held in the North Beach area, including tours of Oyhut Bay Seaside Resort, the Coastal Interpretive Center in Ocean Shores, a catered lunch in the coastal community of Seabrook, and fresh oyster tasting at Lytle’s Seafood. For tickets, please call 360-532-7888. We’re very grateful to have so many sponsors for this one-of-a-kind event. If your business is interested in joining in as a sponsor, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
We also have our September Business After Hours coming up on September 9th, hosted by GGHI Leader’s Circle, Bank of the Pacific! These networking events are the perfect opportunity to meet fellow business community members, learn more about the host business, and mingle in a relaxed environment. As always, Business After Hours are free to all to attend.
Other events we have coming up and community events from around the County can be found on our Events Calendar. To submit your own event, click the + icon located above the righthand corner of the calendar and fill in the prompts with your event’s information.
New Membership Opportunity:
Are you interested in becoming a member of Greater Grays Harbor Inc., but are you not a business? Well, we are now providing a new opportunity for Individual Memberships for $150 per year. This membership is for individuals, not businesses, and provides an individual with the opportunity to attend our GGHI events at reduced prices.
Warmest Regards,
Darrin Raines,
Chief Executive Officer
Greater Grays Harbor, Inc.
GGHI Contact Information:
Darrin C. Raines, CEO
Phone : 360-532-7888, Email : draines@graysharbor.org
Candie Gleason, CFO
Phone: 360-532-7888, Email: candie@graysharbor.org
Kelsey Norvell-Williams, Marketing Director
Phone: 360-532-7888, Email: knorvell@graysharbor.org
Loretta Thomas, Director of Business Development
Phone: 360-532-7888, Email: lthomas@graysharbor.org